Monday, October 9, 2017

The Champion

On the run from the big-city crime
syndicate's goons, an intrepid band of heroes hides out in a sleepy
little town …

No, that's not the set-up for a
low-budget crime caper or Western, it's the set-up for actual film
history. OK, perhaps the Motion Picture Patents Company (AKA The
Edison Trust) wasn't an actual crime syndicate, but their rigorous
enforcement of the stranglehold they held on crucial motion-picture
equipment patents forced many independent New York-based filmmakers
to devise more innovative methods of production.

One of the simpler strategies was to
hop the ferry across the Hudson River to New Jersey, where it would
be at least somewhat more difficult for Trust detectives to muscle
out the competition. Film producer Mark Dintenfass was one of the
first to make the leap, setting up his Champion Studios in Fort Lee,
NJ, which kicked off a movie boom as other producers soon made the
same move, all of which explains the title of the new documentary,
“The Champion: A Story of America's First Film Town” (2015).

Produced by the Fort Lee Film
Commission, directed by Marc J. Perez, and based on the book “Fort
Lee, the Film Town” by Richard Koszarski, this sleek 35-minute
documentary tells the story of the rise and fall of this
pre-Hollywood movie mecca and the colorful personalities who flocked
to it, and then soon fled. The list includes Florence Lawrence, often
described as the first American actress to be studio-marketed by
name; Theda Bara, who first vamped world audiences from Fort Lee; and
trailblazer Alice Guy Blache, the first woman to run an American
studio (Solax). Future Hollywood moguls such as Mack Sennett and D.W.
Griffith filmed in Fort Lee as well.

Dintenfass's Champion cranked out a
series of Westerns and Civil War pictures for a few years, before
falling to local competition. The documentary, largely filmed on Fort
Lee locations, vividly evokes the specific spaces of this old boom
town, from Rambo's Hotel on the main street to the steep Palisades
nearby which would provide the backdrop for many of the earliest
(literal) cliffhangers. The Fort Lee boom wouldn't last long,
petering out due to a host of factors: the waning of the Edison
Trust's powers, war-time shortages, a flu pandemic that hit the
northeast particularly hard, and, of course, the rise of Hollywood,
California. But during its brief peak, the town still produced a
plethora of significant early films.

Even with its short running time, “The
Champion” pauses to mourn Fort Lee's fall from glory (as “the
first film town” anyway) and particularly the degree to which even
locals, let alone the rest of the world, have largely forgotten its
movie history. Never fear. This sharp, engaging, and informative
documentary brings this vital story back to life with passion and
clarity, and once you've seen it, you'll never forget about Fort
Lee's role in the formative years of the industry.

Still, at just 35-minutes, “The
Champion” might be a tough sell as a stand-alone disc, but you may
not be aware that this a Milestone Films release. And the name
Milestone guarantees not just supreme quality but also a
comprehensive roster of supplemental features on any release, and in
this case, enough to expand “The Champion” into a 2-disc set.

Milestone has, in keeping with its
glorious tradition, included not one, not two, not... aw heck,
they've included nine additional films, all of which are accompanied
by new scores.

DISC ONE includes the main documentary
feature, “The Champion” along with six other films.

The first five extra films on the disc
were shot at Champion from 1910 to 1912.

“The Indian Land Grab” (1910, 11
min.) tells the story of an Indian leader who petitions the federal
government not to seize his tribe's land. You might groan a bit at
the prospect of a film from this era depicting Native Americans, but
the film portrays them as the aggrieved party out for justice and
even takes time out for the Indian leader to fall in love with the
daughter of a legislator which, according to the notes included with
this set, generated controversy at the time.

“A Daughter of Dixie” (1911, 10
min.) presents viewers with an innocent, true-hearted Southern belle
whose loyalties are torn when her brother joins the Confederacy and
her boyfriend joins the Union. It's no masterpiece, but at least it
doesn't indulge mindlessly in the pro-Confederacy nostalgia that was
the coin of the realm in so much early cinema.

Florence Lawrence

“Not Like Other Girls” (1912, 9
min.) was shot for Universal Victor, a studio built primarily around
Florence Lawrence, often called America's first named movie star.
This was a bit of a thrill for me as I've actually lectured on
Florence Lawrence without ever seeing a full movie with her before.
Lawrence plays another true-hearted heroine who proves she doesn't
love her beau just for his money. The movie is predictable fluff, but
I give a big thumbs up to F-Law.

“Flo's Discipline” (1912, 11 min.)
is another Florence Lawrence vehicle that is, alas, not as saucy as
its title teases. Lawrence plays a teacher tasked with taming an
unruly boys' school which requires a good deal of ingenuity and
assertiveness on her part. Lawrence is no shrinking violet here, and
the movie is a lot of fun.

“Marked Cards” (1913, 10 min.) was
one of the last of Champion's films and it doesn't do much to argue
that the brand should have continued. A banker gets ripped off in a
crooked card game and seeks revenge in a rather half-baked manner.
It's much hard-boiled then the other films on the disc, but not
particularly successful.

The sixth extra film on Disc One is yet
another documentary about Fort Lee. “Ghost Town: The Story of Fort
Lee” (1935, 17 min.) adopts a full elegy mode little more than a
decade after Fort Lee's boom went bust. Produced by New Jersey film
buff Theodore Huff, it positions the collapse of “America's first
film town” as a cautionary tale for a society built on the
boom-bust cycle, the future ruins of capitalism visible in the ruins
of Fort Lee's film studios. It's quite moving, and seems like a clear
inspiration for “The Champion.”

DISC TWO offers three silent films also
shot in Fort Lee, though not specifically for or at Champion.

“The Danger Game” (1918, 61 min.)
is an early Samuel Goldwyn production, directed by Harry Pollard and
starring Madge Kennedy, a Broadway comedienne then making the jump to
the suddenly (somewhat) legitimate big screen. Kennedy plays Clytie
Rogers, a sheltered young woman of privilege who fancies herself the
next great American novelist. When her first book (published largely
because of her well-connected father) is panned by a critic who
accuses her of being too naïve to write convincingly about the
world, she vows to prove she can commit to a life of crime. Hilarity
ensues. The film adopts an ambivalent if not outright condescending
view of the liberated post-war American woman, but Kennedy (perhaps
best known to '50s audiences as Aunt Martha on “Leave it to
Beaver”) is a game performer who throws herself headfirst into a
series of challenges.

“A Grocery Clerk's Romance” (1912,
8 min.) is an early Keystone Comedy directed by Mack Sennett which
was shot at Rambo's Hotel in Fort Lee. It's not quite as zany or
kinetic as more familiar Keystone comedies, but it's got plenty of
pizazz, not to mention bombs and quickie marriages. Starring Ford
Sterling.

“Robin Hood” (1912, 31 min.) was
shot at Eclair Studios, one of the most successful outfits to set up
shop in Fort Lee. At a half hour in length and with some elaborate
action sequences, it was a fairly ambitious undertaking for its time
that remains quite compelling more than a century later.

Video:

Obviously, with ten total films
released as much as a century apart, the video quality varies
considerably. I'll just note that “The Danger Game” required the
most extensive restoration and is still missing some footage
(replaced with stills here) and is at its most perilous state of
decay in the first reel. It's amazing that the film survives at all,
and the restoration to reach its current presentable state has been
quite extensive, more heroic work from our great film restoration
experts.

Audio:

Each of the silent films is accompanied
by a new score. All of the films aside from “The Champion” on
Disc One have music by Ben Model. “The Danger Game” has music by
Donald Sosin. “A Grocery Clerk's Romance” and “Robin Hood”
are accompanied with music compiled by Rodney Sauer and performed by
the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

Extras:

The “extras” are all described
above. The only additional extra is the slim inert booklet with
summaries and historical background for each of the films includes in
this two-disc set.

Final Thoughts:

“The Champion” is yet another
lovingly and meticulously curated release from Milestone Films,
telling a vital and largely forgotten story about the formative days
of the American film industry. The inclusion of a cornucopia of
silent films, many never previously released on DVD and some
painstakingly restored here, is a source of celebration for any true
film lover. Plus you get two Florence Lawrences!